davethegrinch.net

Sarah says:

Of course not. Though David has taken on the role of lambaster-du-jour toward old England, even he would agree that there was balance and, as his life partner, I will oblige and provide it.

We boarded a 1980’s Air India 747 and flew our tired and weary bones out of the third world and into the first world at the end of May. We went on to spend three solid weeks in the United Kingdom, the longest consecutive stay for David since moving to the States 10 years ago, to refresh, regroup and bask in the luxury of wearing clean underwear every single day (c’mon, you don’t like to admit it, you think it’s only a disgusting boy thing, but a backpacker has to make sacrifices and my own dirt doesn’t disgust me as much as I thought, I guess

The following good things happened in between the sorry state of the British pub and tabloid news:

First and foremost, my Mom came to visit! This was very exciting for so many reasons not the least of which is that we were there to witness her first visit to the UK. Of course, as my Mom, she was pretty upset by the tales we were sending back home about occasional doctor visits, eye trauma and antibiotics so I think she was relieved to see us in person, to touch us and verify that we were OK and carried no scars. Then she probably quickly realized that we were still the same old stubborn, know-it-all kids - nothing really ever changes Here I am with the Mom’s - I’m sure you can tell from the resemblence that my Mom is on the right, David’s Mom, Jackie, on the left and all of us sporting some Indian and Nepalese fashion.

It was a very special 10 days as Mom finally got to see the second home I’ve been visiting since David and I started dating, she finally got to see the house that David’s Mom was actually born in and David grew up in, she got to see and experience London and the tube and Waterloo Station and we got to experience all that along with her. Though she didn’t go home engaged to her dreamboat, Paul McCartney, she IS already planning a next trip which makes me smile almost as much.

Another very exciting happening: we attended the wedding of our very dear friends, Nina & Steve (oops, Stephen. Sorry Steve I apologize to them both that this is the best picture we managed to get on our point & shoot - we were enjoying the free Pims and wine too much, I think. The wedding was a total kick in the pants and we literally wouldn’t have been anywhere else in the world than with you guys.

And here David and I are looking slightly more back to normal and westernized that we’ve looked in a long time. We David’s suit and my dress made for us in Vietnam - remember that blog?? Not too shabby for like $80 total. And I’d like to acknowledge my reunion with and my love for the hairdryer. Oh, my darling, long-lost hair appliance, how I’ve missed you so.

Other good things that I don’t have pictures of:

We got to meet our nephew, Daniel, for the first time since he was born 18 months ago. Our nephew….sounds very cool. Isn’t marriage great? He’s a beautiful boy and loves to be tossed around, which is great since I love to toss little kiddies around. Good exercise for everyone. And we had enough quality time with David’s parents that, for the first time ever, his Mom did NOT cry when dropping us off at the airport. So, that’s the trick! Thanks to a perfectly timed honeymoon, Nina very generously loaned us her car while they were away so David was re-acquainted with the joys of driving on the English curvy-swurvy roads. We also had 3 solid weeks of glorious cereal eating, the BBC and Chocolate Digestives.

So, there. Some home comforts, some good rest, some clean clothes and some normality for just a little while. Just what the doctor ordered. Once again our home away from home came through for us and we’re back on the road now for our next adventure. Where will we go next?! You’ll have to read to find out…..

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 1:39 am and is filed under Europe, Global Travels. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.